Bulloch County Animal Services is offering information on the steps you should take if you encounter an animal that seems lost in Bulloch County.
Basic guidelines for reporting animals:
- If you feel unsafe approaching the animal, call your county animal control and put in a complaint.
- All animals should be checked for microchip. This can be done at the animal shelter, rescues, or local veterinarians for free.
- If a cat is ear tipped, leave be. Most pet cats wander close to home. If the cat is injured, distressed, or clearly undernourished, contact animal shelter.
- Then report the animal to the animal shelter in the county in which it was found. The shelter will put in found pet report.
- A stray hold is then put on the animal for 3-5 business days.
- If the shelter is full, it is the person who found the animal's responsibility to hold the animal until the stray hold is over or until the shelter has space.
Bulloch County Animal Services stress that when finding an animal, you must go through the proper procedures. You cannot re-home a stray animal to another person without going through these required procedures. Animals found in Bulloch County must be reported to BCAS.
If space is available, animals are held there for 3 to 5 days. They are updated on vaccines and then will go up for adoption. This is to give the owners time to come forward and hopefully get them back home.
If the shelter is full, they encourage the finder of the animal to keep calling, so when space becomes available, they can take the animal in. If you are interested in adopting the animal after a stray hold, the shelter can do the adoption. (If the shelter is full and you are not able to keep the animal, you can try reaching out to area rescues for assistance.)
Amanda Anderson, Shelter Supervisor/ Rescue Coordinator from Bulloch County Animal Services, recommends that people not walk up to dogs they don't know or put stray dogs into their car.
Anderson says, “You don’t know how the dog will react, and at the end of the day, we want the animals safe, but we also want the public safe and no one getting bit.”
Animal Services shares that they do not currently have space to take in every animal. Anderson explains many of the dogs that are picked up in the county are healthy dogs who are playing in the area they live. Without a leash law in the county, the dogs are allowed to explore and have fun as long as they are not causing a problem. Anderson shared to make sure you note exactly where you picked an animal up from.
The BCAS does everything they can to help reunite pets with their owners. They post lost or found pets regularly on their Facebook page. Microchips are offered for just $10 there and greatly increase the chances your pet will be found and returned if it gets lost.
Follow the BCAS Facebook page for upcoming adoption events. For links to Bulloch County Animal Services social media accounts, an adoption list, their Amazon wishlist and more, click here.
Bulloch County Animal Services is located at 81 Mill Creek Rd., Statesboro, Ga. For more information, please call 912-764-4529.
